The good olde days

sde said:
Is any one here old enough to remember rooms like this?

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edited to include
Newsboy Club in Boston. October 1909.

Steve
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I love this photo. Kids today are no different. They would be standing around the table and holding their cues the same way.
 
jrhendy said:
Jerry still plays pretty sporty nine ball and one pocket since he retired. I believe he has a pool room in the Ventura / Oxnard area, He usually comes to the Hard Times & Reno Tournaments & I expect to see him in June when they move the Reno 9 ball to Sacramento. I haven't seen Pepe in many years. I booked winners against Morro, Ernesto & Veracruz from time to time (not as many as they against me) over the years, but also never beat Pepe. John
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Jerry's (Baby Huey) poolroom in Ventura is called Stix.
 
freddy the beard said:
Charlie Boyd is the main reason I never ventured into the Cotton Bowl Palace. I was advised of many of his adventures from my other road partner, Three-fingered-Ronnie Sypher who spent a few seasons down there with Titanic Thompsons son. Charlie Boyd and Sugar Shack Johnny Novak would not have been a good mix.

the Beard
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Good grief!! Would that be the Three-Finger Ron that Gary Pinkowski introduced me to years ago? He was supposed to be helping Gary with the tournament, but I think he was just looking to rob the locals. Another name I haven't heard in YEARS!!
 
That's him, AKA Ocean City Ronnie

Pushout said:
Good grief!! Would that be the Three-Finger Ron that Gary Pinkowski introduced me to years ago? He was supposed to be helping Gary with the tournament, but I think he was just looking to rob the locals. Another name I haven't heard in YEARS!!
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You got it. Also I knew Gary Pinkowski when he was Jockey weight.

the Beard
 
freddy the beard said:
You got it. Also I knew Gary Pinkowski when he was Jockey weight.

the Beard
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LOL!! I NEVER knew Gary that light, and I knew him for more than a few years. Did you also know Allan Keihl?
 
Pushout said:
Good grief!! Would that be the Three-Finger Ron that Gary Pinkowski introduced me to years ago? He was supposed to be helping Gary with the tournament, but I think he was just looking to rob the locals. Another name I haven't heard in YEARS!!
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I wonder where he is now, "Three Fingered" Ronnie Sypher. He was from Ocean City, MD. Right? Pretty snazzy little hustler.

And Gary Pinkowski stayed with me long before he ever had an inkling to produce pool tournaments (or me either for that matter). I took him all over Socal and he broke about even all told. He was not fat then. When I saw him again years later, all blown up, I couldn't believe it.

Hey, Kid Delicious wasn't nearly that big seven years ago, only a little chubby. Another former roommate of mine for a week or two. He stayed with me and Ming in about 2000.
 
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jay helfert said:
I wonder where he is now, "Three Fingered" Ronnie Sypher. He was from Ocean City, MD. Right? Pretty snazzy little hustler.

And Gary Pinkowski stayed with me long before he ever had an inkling to produce pool tournaments (or me either for that matter). I took him all over Socal and he broke about even all told. He was not fat then. When I saw him again years later, all blown up, I couldn't believe it.
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I met Gary in 1974, I think. Shortly after I started playing. Jay, did you know Allan Keihl?
 
The Sport Palace in New Orleans is shot to hell - rap music, guys smoking weed over the tables, body odor, terrible crowd. Stay away.
 
Hey Jay,
Do you remember Freddy Guarino. Played a little one hole. How about Marina billiards. I remember walking in there with Brian, watching him match up with Jimmy Marino. Richie Florence used to be around. To be young again. Downstairs in Hollywood. Talk about seedy. That front table was pretty tight if my memory serves me right. Oh well gotta go back to the working stiff role.
Later
 
tom haney said:
My favorite pool room back in the 60s was the Strand Pool Room
in Clarksburg, WV. Opened at 7 A.M.
Big bar on the right with coldest ,cheapest beer.
Restaurant on right with good, inexpensive food.
You go through open doorway. 12 regulation tables that started hopping
around 9 til about 1 in the afternoon.
Parleys out in the open. Wide open gambling. Machines all around the
tables that paid off but said"For amusement only".
Louie Parise ran the racehorse game.
Most played one pocket: Kenny " Sarge" Gorby, John " Geronimo" Brill,
Guy Buffy, Bill " Slim" Powel, "Billy Bones".
Big nine ball game going too.
One crowd played one and ten.
Mobsters, lawyers, bankers, jewelrers, glass factory workers, coal miners,
hustlers.
All 12 tables kicking with people waiting.
Pool room had been there for years. Charley Duvalier grew up
playing in there.
Lassiter played there, Fats, Mosconi.
Hustlers always passing throug: Old black dude with one eye called
" Deadeye", John Oakie from Philly, " Truck drivin" Ansel McCoy, Frank
Hawkinberry, Ollie Pittman, Eddie Robinson.
Stayed open til 11.
Barber shop in back.
A Greek guy,John Daffin, ran the pool room, Frankie Musci ran the
gambling, old black guy named "Boston" and old Italian fellow
named Charley took the bets.
Some old farmer, Charley Feoppel, and some hard drinking bricklayer
named "Nunie" Fragale would bet thousands playing one hole.
Neat place. Anybody ever there?
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There was also a Strand Poolroom in Charleston WV. There were lots of really strong players in this joint from the 60s, 70 and 80s. Charleston WV had some of the best players around back in it's hay day.
 
West Side of Chas. WV 72 said:
There was also a Strand Poolroom in Charleston WV. There were lots of really strong players in this joint from the 60s, 70 and 80s. Charleston WV had some of the best players around back in it's hay day.
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I've been there. Do you remember when Lucky Joey had the Diamond Billiards on Summers Street? And Joey Casanova had the pool hall across from the bus station? I busted some guys in there in '78 and was lucky to get out alive. Joey walked me to the door and my wife pulled up in front of the door. The first time I played Lucky Joey he was beating me 8-7 every game until Major Herrick told me I was playing the best player in Charleston.
 
It’s fun when one of these old threads pops up. Especially nice to hear the words of people no longer with us.

I always liked going to the room at 8:30 in the morning and having a coffee and a cigar when I should be working. It felt like I was stealing time.
 
STANTON said:
Hey Jay,
Do you remember Freddy Guarino. Played a little one hole. How about Marina billiards. I remember walking in there with Brian, watching him match up with Jimmy Marino. Richie Florence used to be around. To be young again. Downstairs in Hollywood. Talk about seedy. That front table was pretty tight if my memory serves me right. Oh well gotta go back to the working stiff role.
Later
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I was playing Fred Guarino 9-ball once….missed a hook twice ….Freddy says “You’re on two.” I said “I knew I was on something, I just didn’t know it was two.” Danny D says “First time Freddy has smiled in thirty years.”
 
anybody on here remember The Drexel in Jacksonville IL??? Played there a little the summer of 67. Like to know what happened to it out of curiosity.

"My" hometown pool hall smelled like old man BO and cigarette smoke, had about 5 spittoons scattered around for those that dipped or chewed. Five old Schmidt tables of WWI vintage, each weighing about a ton, literally.
 
california had all the great runout 9 ball players. but the worst at matching up. it was easy pickings there. especially northern cal.
and no one played on the lemon so all you had to do is watch around for a day or so and you got to lock everyone up.
 
STANTON said:
Hey Jay,
Do you remember Freddy Guarino. Played a little one hole. How about Marina billiards. I remember walking in there with Brian, watching him match up with Jimmy Marino. Richie Florence used to be around. To be young again. Downstairs in Hollywood. Talk about seedy. That front table was pretty tight if my memory serves me right. Oh well gotta go back to the working stiff role.
Later
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Freddy ran around with Baby Huey and I played him several times. He was a sourpuss pretty much all the time, but a pretty decent player as well. I was in Marina Billiards many times to watch the money games, especially the daily twenty a man ring ten ball game. All strong players in that game; Richie, Ronnie, Cole, Keith, Lou Butera, Eddie Burton, Jimmy Reid, Grady, Jimmy Marino etc. etc. No one was barred!

I played Jimmy Fusco in there for fifty a game after I had beaten him in One Pocket at the Stardust (1972). He gave me 8-7 and I blew 200 before pulling up. The original Hollywood Billiards was an institution in L.A. for decades! We shot a scene there for a TV news crew with a local televison personality named Johnny Mountain. It was me, Bob Hunter and Mary Kenniston. We hustled him and at the end he only had his shorts left on. I also used to run weekly tournaments there in the early to mid 90's. We had one major tournament called the Hollywood Open with a 30K purse and 10K to the winner. Roger Griffis beat Efren in the finals. There is a whole story about that event in my book, on how the police tried to cancel it the day before it was to start.
 
jay helfert said:
Freddy ran around with Baby Huey and I played him several times. He was a sourpuss pretty much all the time, but a pretty decent player as well. I was in Marina Billiards many times to watch the money games, especially the daily twenty a man ring ten ball game. All strong players in that game; Richie, Ronnie, Cole, Keith, Lou Butera, Eddie Burton, Jimmy Reid, Grady, Jimmy Marino etc. etc. No one was barred!

I played Jimmy Fusco in there for fifty a game after I had beaten him in One Pocket at the Stardust (1972). He gave me 8-7 and I blew 200 before pulling up. The original Hollywood Billiards was an institution in L.A. for decades! We shot a scene there for a TV news crew with a local televison personality named Johnny Mountain. It was me, Bob Hunter and Mary Kenniston. We hustled him and at the end he only had his shorts left on. I also used to run weekly tournaments there in the early to mid 90's. We had one major tournament called the Hollywood Open with a 30K purse and 10K to the winner. Roger Griffis beat Efren in the finals. There is a whole story about that event in my book, on how the police tried to cancel it the day before it was to start.
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Hey Jay, excuse my ignorance but how exactly is 'liability' played? They never played it much in the midwest. All 9ball/1p and maybe golf on snooker table.
 
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